Slivery will get you into the tourney

So some thoughts on yesterday's tournament selection committee decisions for the 65-team field of the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament. The committee was led this year by SEC Commissioner Mike Slive:

- The committee once again did a better than average job of seeding the teams and selecting the teams. I am disturbed by the lack of at-large selections for mid-major conference teams. St. Mary's, San Diego State, and Creighton deserve to be in this tournament, especially over Arizona, Maryland, and Wisconsin. It is a disgrace that Arizona is in this tournament. Whatever happened to the committee not selecting teams because they struggled down the stretch of the season? Michael Wilbon said it best today on PTI: Some of the more memorable moments in the tournament over the last few years have been from at-large teams from mid-major conferences pulling upsets. Damn disgrace.

- I know the SEC didn't have a top-level year, but are you telling me that if Mississippi State doesn't win yesterday that the SEC would have only received 2 bids? Huh?

- Also its a joke to have the pod system if you are only going to use it to 'reward' higher seeds. I understand the need, in a weakening economy, to ensure first and second round sellouts by having teams like UNC and Duke play at Greensboro, and Villanova play in Philadelphia. But Florida State gets sent to Boise instead of Miami? Temple to Miami instead of Philadelphia? Dayton to Minneapolis instead of at home? Portland State to Boise instead of in Portland? Oklahoma to Kansas City but not Missouri, which won the conference tournament that OU did not? They need to fix this.

- That said, I give them credit for having 3 Big East teams as top seeds (although I think Memphis should have been West #1 over UConn), making Gonzaga (ina year of the shrinking mid-majors) a #4 seed, and Siena a #9 seed. Still, I know UNC beat Duke twice during the season, but if Duke won the ACC tourney and UNC did not, and Duke had the best RPI in the country (2 spots ahead of the Tar Heels), then how come the Blue Devils aren't the #1 seed in the South?

But in a few days, all of these complaints will drift away when the ball is tipped. I'll post my predictions for the tournament - FOR ENTERTAINMENT PURPOSES ONLY - tomorrow here on the site.

BTW - Joe Lunardi of ESPN, the Bracketologist, studies college basketball everyday for his job fulltime, watches a ton of games, and has access to all the people on the committee. Yesterday, he also posted his final projected field right before they announced it. Our side-by-side results:

- Number of Teams in the field: Joe had 64 of 65, I had 61 of 65
- Number of Teams in right seed in right region: Joe had 11 right, I had 8
- Number of Teams in right region but wrong seed: Joe had 12, I had 7

Not bad considering I only have access to the Internet and ESPN to watch and read about games and teams.